Where should I start with this one? First, as a group, we missed National Taco Day on Wednesday. Mainly because I was out of town for work. Still.... a YUGE taco FAIL. Then we tried to set up today's taco stop and Thing 1 (Travis) and Thing 2 (Chris) decided to go completely opposite directions: we decided on Cholita's at noon but then Travis bailed last minute and Chris went there and ate 15 minutes early. Guess that whole "setting a time" thing isn't actually necessary. Anyway, it got even worse as I pulled up and Chris calls me and says "Don't even go. This place sucks." As he's leaving. So, do I go? Or do I bail? Since Chris stuck to ground beef tacos only, I decided I would go in anyway and see what else they had.
Cholita's is similar in standing to me as our last stop at El Patio - a local favorite that I hadn't been to in forever. I kinda remembered that the food was ok, so I wasn't going to let Chris and his kiddie taste buds scare me off automatically. When I arrived at about noon, the place was pretty busy. I was greeted immediately and got chips and two types of salsa at my table quickly. The chips were ok and the mild salsa was basically runny tomato sauce. The "hot" salsa (I used quotes, because that's what they called it, though I considered it spicy vs hot) was quite a bit thicker and had more flavor to it. I perused through the menu - basically your taco choices, are ground beef, chicken, chorizo, fish, or ham. You can get a two taco plate with a side for $6.75-$7.99 or the a la carte prices for each taco was in the $2.50-3.00/each range. Allegedly. Anyway, I went with a ham and a chorizo on a soft flour shell, and a ground beef taco on a fried flour shell.
Tacos came out fairly quickly and I thought they looked average. I started with the ham taco, which was a small amount of ham basically diced and put in with some beans, tomatoes, and onion. It felt pretty whimpy really, as there seemed to just be a spoonful of diced ham in the taco. Taste wise, it was below average. I didn't care for the ham and beans combo at all really. The ground beef taco was next. This one came Tex-Mex style with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. Chris' main complaint was that his taco was dripping in grease. Thankfully, I didn't have that problem. Not even remotely actually, which is odd, since I went in right after he did. One bite in though and my taco became a taco salad as it crumbled all over my plate. I didn't think it was a horrible taco, but the ground beef was pretty bland. The chorizo taco rounded out this plate and I would say it was a fairly mediocre taco. A little spicy, but somewhat dry for my taste.
Overall, I would rate the tacos as somewhere between MEH and BELOW AVERAGE. As I always do, I looked around to see what everyone else was eating as there was quite a decent crowd there and I didn't notice anyone near me eating tacos. Really odd. Also, Cholita's gets low marks on the value side, as my 3 tacos came out to a total of $10.91 before tipping the waitress, which was one of the few positives, as she was attentive, friendly, and quick. My overall rankings on the 5 Taco Scale are below.
Food Quality - 1.5 Tacos
Price - $-$$
Value - 1.5 Tacos
Cleanliness - 4.0 Tacos
Service - 4.5 Tacos
Overall Experience - 2.0 Tacos
Likelihood to return - 1.5 Tacos
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